According to Cheryl Chan, Asst Director of the Planning Division at the MOE:

In the next few postings, I'll go through the wiki-leaks revelations and explain each one in greater detail. Govt does not want more Singaporeans to have degrees[ Link ] ¶9. (C) Singapore boasts a highly competitive and well-regarded primary and secondary education system, but the number of Singaporeans completing a tertiary education is relatively low. Only 23 percent of Singaporean students entering primary school complete a degree at a local four-year university. In other knowledge-economies such as Japan's, around 50 percent of students complete a university degree. However, according to Cheryl Chan, Assistant Director of the Planning Division at the Ministry of Education (MOE), the government does not plan to encourage more students to get a higher education. The university enrollment rate will continue to be maintained at 20-25 percent because the Singaporean labor m...